Basis of Praise!

Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength. “O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!
1 Chronicles 29:12‭-‬13 NLT

Today's extract examines the foundations of our lives and seeks to set us on the right path. We are in a possession, position, power and privilege-conscious generation, where worth is measured in physical terms. We judge men by what they have or don't have, by the clout they command, by the position they occupy or by our own weak and unstable standards. Consequently, man has mastered the act of pursuing the earthly temporal things because he wants to be recognised and noticed.

However, some eternal truths stick out in the extract above:

1. Wealth and honour come from GOD alone, and power and might are in His hands. The world cannot give what it does not have, and it cannot explain what it does not give. Wealth is not what the world defines it to be, but what God determines it to be. He is the only source; all other sources will only end up in shame and disgrace. Man wields power as if he would have it forever. We have leaders who have been in 'power' for more than 30 years, afraid to relinquish position to another. They forget that nobody can last forever, all positions are just transient and only God remains forever. Power and might is God's exclusive preserve. Power and might is within God's exclusive control. No man can exercise power and might; you are only there for a while and for as long as the Power himself permits.

2. God rules over everything, and at his discretion, people are made great and given strength. That is authority, unquestionable authority. His determines who gets what, when and how. He raises up one and brings down another; he enters into eternal covenant of blessings with whoever he pleases, and he brings down men from their lofty positions, when they think they have it all locked down.

When I then consider the above, how would I not be moved to praise this God? When I realise that all that I have comes from him, and I do not amount to much outside of him, how would I not praise Him? God, I praise you, there is no one like you, you do great and marvellous things. Your time of favour has indeed come.